straffin.com » John

Well, they ARE by the same composer…

John — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:06:04 +0000

“I need to write that down somewhere: dah dah da-dah, dah da-dah, dah dah da-DAH, dah dah daah daah DAAH. Because every time I think about how it goes, I think: daah daah, da-da-da-DAAH dah, da-da-da-DAAH dah, da-da-da-daaah.”
- Amanda, explaining her tendency to confuse two popular movie themes (A gold star if you can figure out what themes she “sung”)

“Any sufficiently advanced technology” and all that

John — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:27:53 +0000

“I’m frankly stunned by the quality of what’s streaming over the Internet to my television right now.”
- John, Upon firing up Netflix streaming for the first time

“That’s because you’re a geek who understands how things have changed. The rest of us just expect magic.”
- Shannon

Why I love this woman so much

John — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:52:42 +0000

“You know, sweetie, I won’t be wearing my wedding ring during my triathlon … you may want to be there to beat back the female competitors.”
- John, 3k into a 5k run with Shannon

“Just run faster than they do … I mean, it *is* a race, after all …”
- Shannon, 17 years into being married to John

Well… that depends on what the meaning of “wash” is…

John — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:17:31 +0000

“This hasn’t been washed… or if it has, it was with a stick of butter…”
- Shannon, upon retrieving a pot that the girls “washed”

Amanda’s 9th “Half-Birthday” quotes

John — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:00:51 +0000

First stop: the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, as we approach their newly opened “Dinosaur Trail”

“It’s starting to get a little Jurassic-y around here!”

Next stop: the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, leaving the “Warhol’s Polaroids” exhibit (which was more of historic interest than artistic, IMHO)…

“Well, he sure had a lot of fun with his camera!”

… and leaving the museum…

“Amanda?”
- John

“Yes?”
- Amanda

“Did you like the museum?”
- John

“Yes?”
- Amanda, unconvincingly

“Do you want to go there again?”
- John, trying to get to the truth

“Maybe when I’m older, and I appreciate ‘art’ more.”
- Amanda

On the way to the last stop (Northgate Mall’s merry-go-round), driving through the day-long rainstorm, now a massive downpour…

“I sure am glad we didn’t go to the zoo!”

… and on the way home…

“So, what was your favorite part?”
- John, curiously

“I think my favorite part was…”
- Amanda, interrupted

“You’re not allowed to say ‘the merry-go-round’. If you say ‘the merry-go-round’, then next year we’re going to the merry-go-round, riding it twice, and then going home.”
- John, despairing

“Oh… in that case it was the Dinosaur Trail.”
- Amanda, prudently

Haiku? Haiku!

John — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:40:26 +0000

So, we’re studying the Eastern Hemisphere in homeschool this year and we’ve just about finished with Japan. Apparently, the entire household has been somewhat taken by haiku as we’ve been extemporaneously composing them for about a few days now. Here’s what we’ve got so far…

Amanda wrote:

Playing with some string
Sitting on her favorite seat
Our beautiful cat

Emily wrote:

Beautiful cat lies
Half asleep in the warm sun
Please do not disturb!

Shannon sensed a theme here…

Shannon wrote:

Supreme effort earns
Shaky success: zipper up!
Better not sit down

Bickering siblings
A sudden silence descends
Mom suspects mischief

Visitors welcome
But must have less than five legs
Bring me the ant spray

I pick up my flute
Traitor kitty slinks away
Thanks for your support

In light of recent automotive troubles, I wrote:

The car sounds funny
Hard to steer, smells like bad eggs
This is gonna hurt

and Shannon wrote:

Colored lights appear
Weird vibrations, burning smell
The mechanic smiles

There will undoubtedly be more, hence the new “haiku” category I’ve added to the site…

Poultry profits?

John — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:33:13 +0000

(During a conversation in which Shannon and I seriously consider getting some hens to raise in our pet-less, fenced-in backyard)

“We could name one ‘Henny’ and one ‘Penny’…”
- Emily

“… and one ‘Nickel’!”
- Amanda

Yeah, yeah… enough already…

John — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:27:53 +0000

“I just love the word ‘asymptote’. I mean, how many words have ‘m-p-t’ in them?”
- John, after just having used “asymptotically” in a sentence at lunch with Dave

“Um… ‘empty’?”
- Dave, John’s best-work-friend (or work-best-friend, or… whetever), after about five seconds of thought

“Okay, other than that one…”
- John, somewhat embarrassed

“Scrumptious?”
- Dave, again after about five seconds of thought

“Okay, okay…”
- John, giving in

“My name is Humpty, pronounced with a Umpty…”
- Dave, singing, refusing to accept my surrender

“Okay, so anyway, as we were saying…”
- John, dragging the conversation back on track

Dave nods to acknowledge that we can continue the conversation and abandon the hunt for “m-p-t” words

“You’re still thinking, aren’t you…”
- John, after another five second pause, exasperated but laughing

“Verklempt?”
- Dave, now laughing as well, secure in his total verbal domination of the moment

Heard from the past…

John — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:21:06 +0000

(The following items were heard back in February 2009, written on our wipe-off board, photographed from there with my camera-phone, then quickly forgotten about. I just found them again and now present them here for your enjoyment.)

Apparently, Olympics >> American team-sports

“Is the USA in yellow?”
- One of the girls, while watching Super Bowl 43 (Being a Pittsburgh fan, I told her “Yes”.)

And if it’s the Super Bowl, where are the pins?

“Is this football?”
- One of the girls, again, while watching the Super Bowl

“Is what football?”
- John, wondering what they could possibly be missing

“What we’re watching.”
- Same girl

“Yes, this is football.”
- John, thinking “I’ve shown them this before, haven’t I?”

“Then why are they throwing it with their hands?”
- Same girl, apparently having been exposed to the term “football” more often in another, more international context.

Well, she’s got a point…

“It’s snowing and we bought ice cream! What kind of weirdos are we?”
- John, pointing out the irony of the situation

“We’re Straffins!”
- Amanda, pointing out a thorough understanding of her weirdo heritage

The Empire (Waist) Strikes Back!

John — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:57:20 +0000

As her third “real” sewing project (after an “intro project” smock, and some shorts and a dance outfit for Emily), Shannon made a Regency dress. Yes, she jumped from a smock and shorts to an entire dress! It was done at this time because she wanted to wear it to a themed going-away party for some friends of ours. Never mind that the theme was “Medieval” and not “Regency” … Shan wanted to make a Regency dress and everyone thought the dress looked great.

Rather than try to dress John up in Regency style as well, Shannon on made him a tie from the same material as the dress.

Here’s how it all came out:

Regency Dress
Shannon’s Regency dress, front (it was a little windy)	Shannon’s Regency dress, back (it was a little windy)	Shannon’s Regency dress, side
Shannon’s Regency dress, sleeve and neck detail	Shannon’s Regency dress, back detail	Shannon’s Regency dress, smile detail
Shannon’s Regency dress, smile-without-looking-into-the-sun detail	Shannon and the girls (no, Shannon did not make their dresses too)	Shannon and John (yes, Shannon made John’s tie from the same material as the dress)